Many shoppers today prefer to shop online. There are many disadvantages to shopping at brick-and-mortar enterprises: gas expenditure, high prices at stores, forgotten coupons and rebates, loss of personal time, having to find deals and wait for deals to arrive, babysitting fees, and impulse buying.
Therefore, many shoppers have just given in to the ease of online buying. One large advantage that online shoppers have over shopping at physical stores is that the shoppers can very easily comparison shop without a lot of hassle.
Comparison shopping online allows shoppers to use a comparison shopping engine (CSE) to quickly locate their product, find the lowest price, and find the seller with the best rating. All a shopper has to do is go to a website like Amazon or eBay (where several sellers and items thrive) and use the websites CSE in order to shop.
- Convenience. CSEs allow shoppers to do their shopping for them, day or night, and never says a word about the pajamas or grungy slippers a consumer may shop in when shopping online.
- Price comparison. This is a big one! Here, consumers can quickly find what seller has the best price, rather than calling each and every physical store, waiting on the line for an associate, inquiring about the item, waiting for the employee to check…only to find out that the store is out of this product.
- More choices. With a CSE, you can compare brands, styles, colors, and value of a shopper’s inquiry or of the search term’s related products.
- Never miss a sale. Online shoppers can subscribe to the retailer’s newsletter and receive periodical updates. Once an item goes on sale, they can instantly purchase the item via the retailer’s website.
- Reviews from actual customers. Word of mouth is the most lucrative form of advertising, because consumers hear about a retailer from a trusted source. Those retailers who have a positive rating from consumers are more likely to attract other consumers than those retailers who have a negative (or very low) rating. Many websites rely on this system in order to allow sellers to sell to consumers, like eBay.
- Save on driving. Of course, those who use a CSE to get exactly what they want are also saving on driving too. No need to waste gas and time going to three different retailers trying to find the right product when one hour on the computer can save a shopper a whole afternoon!
